The Return (Titan 1)

“Okay,” I whispered. Out of everything I thought about Seth’s past, I never thought it involved another girl.

“Alex is in love with my brother. He’s in love with her. They have this epic kind of love. Always-have, always-will kind of shit. They shouldn’t have been together, because he’s a pure and she was a half, but they made it work. They did it.”

That made me feel better. A little.

“But Alex was never meant to be with my brother. She was an Apollyon, born in the same generation as another—as Seth. They were meant to be together. It was how they were built, to be each other’s other half.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Okay. That did not make me feel better.

“They met when Seth was brought to Deity Island to guard Lucian. He was Alex’s stepfather, also ran the Council, and a very big douchebag. Seth didn’t know that Alex existed. She didn’t know about him. You see, when they first met, Alex was seventeen, and the Apollyon doesn’t come into their powers until they turn eighteen. Seth was already the Apollyon, and as far as we knew, he was the only one, but he wasn’t. Alex swears that Seth didn’t know, that he was just as shocked as she was. The two of them didn’t hit it off at first.” He paused. “Well, most people didn’t hit it off with Seth.”

I remembered what it was like when I first met him. Totally understandable.

“He could be a dick. Either you loved him or you hated him, but almost everyone feared him,” he explained. “Anyway, turns out that Lucian knew the whole time that Alex was the Apollyon. That bastard was working with Ares, and Lucian made every attempt to keep Seth and Alex together, because when there are two Apollyons, something crazy can happen. One of them can tap into the other and become the God Killer. And if you happen to control the God Killer, you control everything. Because the God Killer can, obviously, kill gods. That’s a big deal.”

All of this was fascinating, but a bubble of dread began to form in my belly. I tucked my legs to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees. “When you say ‘together,’ do you mean together together?”

There was a pause and he nodded. “Alex always loved my brother, but like I said, it wasn’t easy for them at times. Aiden pushed her away to keep her safe, and with Seth and Alex both being Apollyons, they were connected in a way that is hard to explain. They knew when the other was in trouble. They could feel things about each other. I know they…they, uh, messed around, but, Josie, what they felt for one another…wasn’t something deep and everlasting. Yeah, they cared for each other. Maybe even loved one another, in a way, but not in the way you’ve got to worry about, okay? What was between them was always a fabrication of fate. Nothing more.”

That…that was hard to fully accept. That another girl out there was connected to Seth, could, like, feel him?

“Seth was never supposed to be the Apollyon,” he continued. “Throughout history, except for one instance, Apollo has always created the Apollyon, but Seth was born a few years before Alex. The gods knew that one of them had done it, and they feared that someone was hoping to create the God Killer. One of them was, and that was Ares. Now remember, Ares was working with Lucian, right? Lucian got to Seth. No one knows how, but it became painfully clear that Lucian had some kind of weird parental control over Seth. He doted on Seth, made him feel like he was a part of a family. He got Seth good.”

Oh no. Maybe that sounded weird to Deacon, to everyone else, but I got how it could happen. Seth had a crap mother. Had a crap childhood. It took no leap of logic to think that Seth secretly, maybe even desperately, wanted to belong—wanted someone who was like a parent to love and care for him. I could understand that. If I hadn’t had my grandparents, I would’ve been lost.

And Seth…he had been lost.

“Lucian got Seth on his side, meaning he got Seth on Ares’s side. No one knew this. There was a lot of other shit going on, but when it got closer to Alex’s birthday, to when she would awaken as the Apollyon, the shit hit the fan.”

“What…what happened?”

He stared into my eyes. “This is the part I hope you’re ready to hear.”

I waited a moment and then nodded.

“Seth was in deep with Lucian and Ares, and he did what they ordered. The first phase of Ares’s take-over-the-world plan was to take out the Council at Deity Island, and that was done.” A pinched, pained look clouded his face, like the memories were too raw. “They used Seth to do it.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. Oh God.

“He took out the Council. It was…it was bad, and it sparked a chain reaction among the other gods. Poseidon showed up. Yep. That Poseidon. He destroyed Deity Island trying to stop Seth and Lucian, but it didn’t work. A bunch of innocent people died.”

Closing my eyes, I swallowed my next breath. I remembered watching the news when that’d happened. Of course, they had reported it as a natural disaster. Horror poured into me, knowing that Seth had been a part of such…such destruction.

I wasn’t even sure I could kill a daimon and Seth had killed… He had killed so many people, either by his hand or as a result of his actions.

“And Seth, it turned out that he’d been trying to awaken Alex before all of that. He was tapping into her aether…and from what I gathered, he was getting addicted to it—to the power. That just made the whole thing worse. Then Alex awakened, and she connected with Seth because of what he was doing. It was pretty bad. The gods were pissed. Volcanoes were erupting. Earthquakes. Shit got real. Ares was on Earth, his influence sparking war and conflict, and we had to cage up psycho Alex to keep her from running off and joining psycho Seth.”

My mouth dropped open. Seth was a killer…and an addict. There were no words.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Alex threatened to make a crown out of my ribs or something. She was such a bitch during that time.” He flashed a quick grin. “But as cheesy as this sounds, love conquers everything, even fate and destiny. She managed to escape and Aiden went after her. She could’ve killed him, but her love for him snapped her out of it. She unplugged from Seth and wasn’t so crazy anymore.”

“That’s…that’s good to know,” I murmured, staring at him.

“But, meanwhile in psycho-Seth land, he was doing whatever Ares told him to do. Fighting. Taking out those who were trying to flee Ares. He…he was a killing machine, addicted to power, completely manipulated. Totally psycho and—”